In "Going the Distance," Drew Barrymore plays a quick-to-laugh, ambitious young hipster who loves cool indie bands, "Shawshank Redemption" and playing the old arcade games in bars. Jason Long, on the other hand, plays a quick-to-laugh, ambitious young hipster who loves cool indie bands, "Shawshank Redemption" and playing old arcade games in bars.

Zac Efron and the rest of the crew behind "Charlie St. Cloud" want their movie to be weepy, soulful, inspirational, cathartic, ethereal, life-affirming and who knows what else on the New Age emotional barometer.

If you've seen "The Karate Kid" (1984), the memories will come back during this 2010 remake of the original. That's a compliment. The original story was durable enough to inspire three sequels, and now we have an entertaining version filmed mostly on location in China, with 56-year-old Jackie Chan in the role of Mr. Miyagi.

Well-timed to open soon after Craig Venter's announcement of a self-replicating cell, here's a halfway serious science fiction movie about two researchers who slip some human DNA into a cloning experiment, and end up with an unexpected outcome, or a child, or a monster, take your pick. The screenplay blends human psychology with scientific speculation and has genuine interest until it goes on autopilot with one of the chase scenes Hollywood now permits few pictures to end without.

Dogs cannot talk. This we know. Dogs can talk in the movies. This we also know. But when we see them lip-synching with their dialogue, it's just plain grotesque. The best approach is the one used by "Garfield" in which we saw the cat and heard Bill Murray, but there was no nonsense about Garfield's mouth moving.

"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is a children's story beefed up to appeal to young teens. It's based on a video game, but don't make me play it, let me guess: The push-button magic dagger is used in the game to let you rewind and try something again, right?